Jessica Chastain: Movie star in waiting

Jan. 2, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Jessica Chastain has had parts in 10 films over the past two years, but the one that seems likely to vault her to stardom, and an Oscar nomination, is her role as a CIA agent chasing Osama bin Laden in "Zero Dark Thirty." PAUL A. HEBERT, GETTY IMAGES

Jessica Chastain has had parts in 10 films over the past two years, but the one that seems likely to vault her to stardom, and an Oscar nomination, is her role as a CIA agent chasing Osama bin Laden in "Zero Dark Thirty."PAUL A. HEBERT, GETTY IMAGES

You may not know who Jessica Chastain is right now, but wait a few days.

Although she appeared in six movies in 2011, including an Oscar-nominated turn in "The Help," the actress has managed to fly under the Hollywood radar. That no doubt will end when audiences see "Zero Dark Thirty," in which she stars as the tough CIA agent who led the decade-long search for terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, both of whom won Oscars for "The Hurt Locker," the film, which tops many year-end Best 10 lists and is generating significant Oscar buzz, has become a lightning rod for political whining on a massive scale.

Some politicians have attacked the film as pro-Obama, and have accused the Administration of allowing unprecedented access to secret documents. Other politicians claim that the film glorifies torture, saying that it implies that waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques led directly to the killing of bin Laden. Meanwhile, the CIA is uncomfortable with the extensive scenes of torture.

The only thing everyone agrees on is that Chastain will be nominated for an Oscar.

In the film, Chastain, who is currently starring in the Broadway revival of "The Heiress," plays an operative named Maya, who apparently was based on a real CIA agent who obsessed over the capture of bin Laden long before SEAL Team Six got involved.

Chastain will address the controversy that follows this film, and she'll explain why she felt more exposed in this film than she did in other films that required her to appear nude. The 35-year-old actress also will speculate on whether "Zero Dark Thirty" (a military term for the time that the Navy SEALs arrived at bin Laden's compound in Pakistan) will turn her into a movie star.

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER: The last time we spoke, you said you knew you weren't a movie star because you weren't on magazine covers. Well, it sure looks like you on the cover of Marie Claire magazine. Are you now a movie star?

JESSICA CHASTAIN (laughs): To answer that question, you'd have to conduct a poll on the street to ask people if they knew who Jessica Chastain is. Most likely, they would say no. However, I do believe I am definitely a professional actor, and I get to do amazing movies with Kathryn Bigelow.

Q.But you think there is still a recognition problem?

A. I look different in a lot of my movies, and I think people don't make the connection between the name and the face. They don't usually recognize me on the street, but I am starting to see a change. One day, I was walking through Times Square, and I heard someone say, "Hey, that's Jessica Chastain." I was so surprised that I turned around. That never happened before.

Q.I interviewed Sharon Stone a week before "Basic Instinct" opened and, even though you never know about these things, the buzz was so strong on that film that she knew her life was about to change. There is a lot of the same buzz on "Zero Dark Thirty." Do you get any sense that your life is about to change?

A. This movie is not always easy for me to watch. The character holds so much inside a lot of the time that when she lets loose, like in that hallway scene with Kyle Chandler, I think I look like a monster with bulging neck veins. It almost seems like my neck is bigger than my head. I see vulnerabilities in myself that I've never seen in myself on screen, so I do wonder if it's a more exposed performance than I've given before.

Q.This coming from an actress who was naked in the movie "Lawless?"

A. I feel more exposed in this film than doing nudity in any other film. Doing nudity is embarrassing, but it was important to the character, particularly in "Lawless." It spoke to her power, so it was important. But I feel more exposed when there are emotions being shown that I wasn't aware of.

Q. I don't understand. If you weren't aware of them, how did you bring them out in the scene?

A. It was like a blind panic. For a woman in the CIA, you can't be emotional. If you are emotional, no one will take you seriously. So she has to keep a lid on it all the time. Everything we were filming was so intense, and my character wasn't allowed to express her feelings. When that scene in the hallway happened, I kind of exploded. It was the first time I get to say what I really think. It was like shaking a champagne bottle, and then popping the cork. I felt so exposed, it was embarrassing. I'm really out there in that moment.

Q.And to my question about this being a life-changing role ...

A. OK, I might get recognized a little more on the street after this film.

Q.What was your reaction when this film became a political football?

A. Everyone tried to appropriate this film for their own agenda. There is so much misinformation out there on this film. There were even some people who were saying that I must be playing one of the SEALs' wives. That made me so angry. That was so sexist. This is the hunt for Osama bin Laden, so the men go off to do the work and the women stay at home. But that's how Hollywood treats women, so I guess I understand why some people would assume that.

Q.Not to defend these people, but nobody knew about your character until just recently.

A. And I think that was calculated. Mark (Boal), being a journalist, knew he had a scoop, and the longer he held back information on this woman in the CIA who led the search, the more impact it would have when it finally came out. Not a lot of people knew about this woman.

Q.Was it driving you crazy that people were attacking the film before they had seen it?

A. It drove me insane. People were saying it was a pro-Obama movie. People said it was propaganda. There was so much misinformation. It is not pro-anything. It has no agenda. Mark Boal got the facts, and created a story through the facts.

Q.Does it amaze you that Mark and Kathryn were working on a Osama bin Laden movie since 2006, and then had to scrap the whole thing and start over after bin Laden was killed?

A. What's even more amazing is that Mark turned around the new script in only three months. Bin Laden was killed in May, and I was cast in the end of November. Mark kept making excuses when they gave me the script, saying it was only a first draft, and I told him: "Are you kidding me? This is the most brilliant script I've ever read."

Q.I have heard that you never met with the woman you portray. Was that her call, your call or Kathryn's call?

A. It was everyone's call. She's an undercover CIA agent, and to meet with her would have been inappropriate. She's really good at her job and we wouldn't want to jeopardize what she's doing. It would have been great for me, of course. I would have loved it. But, by not meeting her, it tells me a lot about who she is. Mark Boal was my resource.

Q.It must have been her call as well.

A. It's really difficult for me to talk about this. I'm not really allowed to talk about her. I don't want to say anything that might put her in danger.

Q.I understand. What was it like to film in Jordan?

A. We had to wear head scarves when we went out in public. One time, we went to this public market, but they made the women wear black robes that covered us from head to toe. I was so upset. It made me feel invisible. And a little angry.

Q.Did you stay in a hotel?

A. Yes. It was very Western, but you still had to watch what you wore. There was heavy security with metal detectors everywhere. And one day I had lunch in the hotel restaurant with Jason Clarke and two other actors, and they brought three menus for the men and nothing for me. I wanted to scream, but I didn't. But I never felt like my own being while I was in Jordan. I felt like a possession.

Q. I guess these were the moments when you wish they had filmed it on a sound stage in Culver City?

A. Sure, but I'm glad they filmed it there. There was a realism to everything we did because we were there.

Q.Was this the hardest shoot you've ever been on?

A. Yes, because of location, the responsibility of playing a real person, the language and being in every scene.

Q. I'm not asking how you feel about the torture scenes from a political perspective, but how do you feel about them from a filmmaker's perspective?

A. I think if they weren't in the film, then it wouldn't have been an accurate story from the get-go. Kathryn and Mark wanted it to be as realistic as possible. This film does not condone torture. It does not even say that torture is useful. In fact, in the film, the most important information came over hummus and tabouli at lunch, not through waterboarding. The torture scenes in the beginning of the movie were intended to stop an attack, and the attack still happened.

Q.Was it difficult for you as a human being to perform in a scene like that?

A. Absolutely. I grew up in Northern California. I'm like a flower child. I'm a vegan and I don't want anything tortured. Being in those scenes was very difficult for me, and being forced to hide my reaction to being in that room was very difficult because I was not Jessica Chastain. I was that other woman, who would react very differently than me. She's uncomfortable with it, but she's a professional so she can't show any emotion. I would be crying. One day, it was so emotionally taxing that I walked outside and bawled. We had to stop filming until I stopped crying. I love this woman I was playing, but it was very difficult to live in her shoes for four months.

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